Friendsgiving

We hosted our 3rd annual 'Friendsgiving' this year, and it was such a great time!  My sister also flew in for the week which was oh so nice.  Food, friends, family, wine, and cornhole in the front yard.  Just lovely.

Dexter couldn't quite get close enough while David carved the turkey.

Lovely ladies.

Dexter livin' the life.

Amelia wearing the best sweatshirt of all time.

Sister!

We missed seeing the our parents this holiday, but we're so thankful for the people God has put in our lives here.  Hope everyone is enjoying lots of good leftover turkey sandwiches.

Hymn Sing

Earlier this month we hosted a Hymn Sing at our house.  It's an event we do occasionally at our church where we come together to potluck and sing hymns together.  We had chili, cornbread, cool weather, friends new and old, guitars and violins all crammed into our house and backyard...it was a sweet time.  

As an adult i've really come to appreciate hymns.  I love the lyrics, often so real and relatable. One of my favorites is Be Thou My Vision.

Be Thou my vision, O Lord of my heart
Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art
Thou my best thought by day or by night
Waking or sleeping Thy presence my light

Be thou my wisdom and Thou my true word
I ever with Thee and Thou with me, Lord
Thou my great Father, I, Thy true son
Thou in me dwelling and I with Thee one

Riches I heed not nor man's empty praise
Thou mine inheritance now and always
Thou and thou only first in my heart
High King of heaven my treasure Thou are

I'll admit, I often don't act this way.  I often fail to put God first and am distracted by this world sometimes.  I often don't find my full satisfaction in Him.  There's some honesty. 

These lyrics resonate with me and pray that they will ring true in my heart more and more.

On the conversation of lyrics, I made this for my friend's 1 year-old baby girl.  I saw this quote on Pinterest and recreated it in the colors of her room.  Hopefully these words she'll take to heart some day.

And I don't know if I ever shared this, but I did another painting a long time ago in the same style but for our master bedroom.  It's Zechariah 4:6.

It's nothing fancy, but I like that I can also make a piece of art the exact colors I want and be picky, ha! And it's a good reminder to wake up to and go to sleep seeing every day.  

Before + After: exterior edition

So David and I are a little crazy, and we decided to paint the exterior of the house...ourselves!

Our house color before was fine - a nice neutral gray.  However, we noticed it was starting to fade in spots and it needed a fresh coat.  So we figured if we were going to repaint it, why not change it to something different and add some color?

I'll admit that I wasn't thrilled with the idea of painting it.  It sounded like waaaay too much work and knowledge of a paint sprayer that I did not possess.  But David was gung-ho about it.  He had visions of telling legendary stories to our future children of how we painted it ourselves (no joke, it was cute).  And once we got professional quotes that were several thousand dollars, I came around to DIY-ing it.

Luckily we have a friend who is very handy and already owned all the equipment we would need.  So with a lot of his help, and a few other friends, we were able to do it!  A very big thank you shout out to them.

Before:

After: finished front side, except that upstairs window... and we haven't put all the shutters back up yet.

When we were planning we worried it might be a little too bright for our old historic neighborhood, but we absolutely are in love with the color (Mesmerize by Behr).  And so far, our neighbors seem to love it as well (whew!).

This was Dexter's contribution:

We also randomly put up these lights in the backyard tree.  They make me giddy.

I'm happy with how the exterior projects are slowly coming along.  Next spring = more grass for our front yard hopefully!  Till next time.

This, that, and the homemade.

It's been a little while, readers (i.e. Mom).  Life goes on, let's catch up!

Although in most rooms of our house i've hung up things on the walls, there are a few rooms that i've just never gotten around to...one of them being the hallway.  But slowly i've been acquiring some more art and I finally decided to put up a few things.  And I love it.  (Sorry for phone quality pics, boo).

Photograph of downtown Augusta by a local artist.

Photograph from an artist at my parent's farmers market in NC.  I love dahlias and they remind me of my wedding bouquet.

Screen print by a local artist (and friend!).  Check out their Etsy shop here.

Walking down our hallway now gives me a smile.

Here's another piece I love, but have yet to put up.  It was made by a patient I worked with on a week of clinicals.  He is a lovely man who has Parkinson's Disease, and he loves to paint.  I was honored when he let me pick any piece I wanted from his room's "studio."  It's so special to me.

On the crafty end, I made my very first scarf.  Saying I made it seems like an over-statement...it was so easy.  I took 2 yards of jersey/knit fabric and sewed the ends together, which results in an infinity scarf.  I'm really happy with how it turned out and can't wait to make more for Fall weather.  And with JoaAnn's coupons, buying a bit of fabric is cheaper than what I can buy one for in the store.  

On the house end, David installed me a new ceiling fan for our porch.  There was an ugly and very low hanging fan there before that I almost hit my head on constantly.  This is simple, wobbles less, and has plenty of head clearance.  Win-win.

On the school end, classes are moving right along.  One thing that's been really neat is that we've learned how to make a few splints from scratch.   Hopefully I did my hand therapist mother proud.

On the kitchen end, this one of my favorite recipes and it tastes great in the Fall (or anytime, really).  Orecchiette with white wine.  This is one that David asks for all the time.  In fact, I might have shared it before? Don't remember.  So excuse me if I have.  But make it anyway.  ***Recipe note: I make it with ground turkey instead of veal, and I omit the capers...simply because it makes it less expensive.  But it always turns out delicious regardless.  And if you can't find orecchiette, any short, textured noodle will do.  

I hope that everyone is starting to experience the first signs of Fall like we are here in Georgia.  There's nothing like those first days of cooler weather, it gives me a huge smile every time I step out the door.  I see more camping and dog parks in my future.

Blur

Due to the craziness of school, this Summer was a blur.  

A mostly good blur though.  

Here's a little bit of what went on when I wasn't in class and on my short break:  birthdays, family time, puppy time, camp, a wedding, Hilton Head Island for our 3rd anniversary, friend time, Texas, and a Great Gatsby-themed party...just to name a few.

I'm back for my next semester again and it's crazy how fast time has gone already.  This time next year i'll be graduating and i'm sure it's going to fly by.  Part of me doesn't want it to go by too fast though because I enjoy moments like all the ones pictured above.  I have to catch myself so I'm not just wishing to quickly get though the next "stage" of life.  There's lots of good stuff that happens between the studying.

Till next time!